Mr. Speaker, I rise in this debate without any feeling of pleasure whatsoever because I feel the debate has been a misuse of this parliamentary forum. I will tell you why, Mr. Speaker.
I sat during question period today and all the previous days when the accusations were flying back and forth. There were accusations that the Prime Minister had to apologize for something no one knew for sure he had done or not, this kind of thing. There were the attacks on the solicitor general for having made some remarks in an airplane. I looked up at the public gallery today and I saw a school group that had come to watch parliament at work. They heard accusations, innuendoes, catcalls and jeering. It was very loud. There were hardly any questions of any substance.
Indeed on other occasions in this House all the questions have been on this very subject of APEC and statements made by the solicitor general, while all kinds of other issues, issues of great importance to this country, have been ignored. We went through a whole period in which this country was in dire jeopardy because of the collapse of financial markets around the world. It was a serious problem. I do not know about people on the opposite side but I can say many on this side were thoroughly frightened by what was happening in southeast Asia and Latin America. And we are not past that crisis yet. There was not a word in the House on that.
There was not a word about issues like hepatitis C. That was such an issue with the Reform Party at one point and now it has disappeared.
I am saddened because I remember. I must say that with respect to the New Democratic Party, I expect nothing more of them and I expect nothing more of the Conservatives either. This type of tactic in the House of Commons was the hallmark of the NDP and the Conservatives in the years before 1993. I will say at the very least that one of the reasons parliament changed after 1993 was that the Bloc Quebecois and the Reform Party really did come here to try to make changes and try to bring dignity to parliament.
In these past weeks this has all been lost. Now they sit there. I am sorry there is not a school group in the House so that they could see my colleagues opposite who have nothing more to do but to catcall and heckle. They know I am speaking the truth and they know they should be ashamed of themselves.
I will take another step along in this argument. One of the key points in this argument was the fact that the member for Palliser was sitting on an airplane and overheard a private conversation that was occurring a few seats over from him. This has caused great controversy in this House. The suggestion has been that this has compromised the public complaints commission hearing into the APEC situation.
I would suggest that the contempt that was shown for that commission was shown by the member for Palliser who brought it up in this House and made it a point of public debate. Had that conversation remained private, the public complaints commission never would have heard of any thoughts of the solicitor general. I suggest it is the member for Palliser who ought to search his conscience in compromising the public complaints commission.
When we talk about people talking out of school and being recorded by their colleagues, let me say that walking down the corridor last week I happened to encounter the member for Kootenay—Columbia who is a Reform member.
He expressed to me pleasure at the questions he was asking on APEC. He said he was having such fun and that there was no limitation on what he could do. There was not even any control in his own party.
In other words, he did not tell me that he was doing something he thought was important for the nation or he thought was really exposing a problem with the Prime Minister or the government. He said that he was having fun and that he was getting the Reform Party's name in the media. That is what it is. It is a media game.
I should point out that I know what I am talking about because I spent many years in the media. Something I am disappointed about that has occurred with my colleagues in the Reform Party, and less so perhaps with the Bloquistes, is that they are talking with the media and they are conducting question period in terms of the type of headlines they hope to get rather than addressing substantive issues.
I will give members a classic example. Yesterday in this House we debated Bill C-54. This is important legislation that deals with the privacy of individuals. This is legislation introduced by the government that would set rules and regulations governing the way private enterprises can disclose personal information about the citizens of Canada.
This is important legislation. When I spoke I said that the legislation had flaws and that it needed to be debated. The Bloc Quebecois responded many times with very compelling arguments.
What is so very interesting about that debate is that if we look at Hansard we will find that only one Reformer spoke. Only one Conservative spoke. Most of the exchange occurred between the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois.
Who cares about good governance in this country? Who cares about the future of Canadians? It is the people who engage in meaningful debate, not the hecklers, not the ones who can sense an opportunity and go on the attack using innuendoes that have no foundation in truth. People who engage in those tactics should be ashamed.
I expect nothing more than that from the NDP and nothing more than that from the Conservatives because they come from the traditional parties that did nothing more. But I expected much more from the Reform Party and I am disappointed. I think members of the Bloc Quebecois have acquitted themselves quite reasonably in this instance. At least they debate real legislation.
Now I come to the issue of financing for lawyers for the students who are appearing before the Public Complaints Commission. Whatever happened to candour? What is wrong with young people coming before the commission and explaining what they saw happen? Why can they not speak from their hearts? Why do they have to get lawyers?
What is wrong with this country is that because of previous political parties giving funds to all kinds of special interest groups we are lawyered to death.
We read in the paper last week about the hepatitis C issue, which was pursued persistently by the opposition. What did we find? We found a gaggle of lawyers on the west coast who hope to gain millions upon millions of dollars in contingency fees if the government pays up for the hepatitis C victims. Is that what members on the other side want? Are they out to benefit lawyers?
I am very surprised. I expected more of my colleagues who were elected in 1993 and in 1997 who came to parliament to change things. I deplore seeing parliament turned into a heckle house, into a chicken coop, a place where sheep cross the floor.
Look, when you baa, we baa. You baa, but you are the ones who are baaing first. You are following the example of the press. You are allowing yourself to be led into controversies that have no substance.
I can tell members opposite that I am getting no complaints in my office. Those members are fond of saying they speak for Canadians. Quite frankly, they are not speaking for Canadians. They are speaking for themselves. They should be ashamed of themselves. Those members should have brought dignity to this parliament. I do not know what to do with them.
I know Canadians are looking at this debate and making their judgment because in my office, on my constituency lines, I only hear silence. Nobody is on the side of people who will merely throw garbage across this floor.
I beg members of the Reform Party to bring back to this House the kind of dignity it once had. Maybe they could follow the lead of members of the Bloc Quebecois because they have shown themselves to be far better parliamentarians than any of the others on that side.